Nov 29 2005
Mark Warner: Playing Politics With Death
All those who think Mark Warner has a chance in 2008 have to realize he did something today he claimed was wrong all through the campaign for Governor in support of Tim Kaine. Warner voided a death sentence for purely personal political benefit.
Virginia’s governor on Tuesday spared the life of a convicted killer who would have been the 1,000th person executed in the United States since the Supreme Court allowed capital punishment to resume in 1976.
Robin Lovitt’s death sentence was commuted to life in prison without parole a little more than 24 hours before he was to be executed by injection Wednesday night for stabbing a man to death with a pair of scissors during a 1998 pool-hall robbery.
…
Warner, a Democrat, had never before granted clemency to a death row inmate during his four years in office. During that time, 11 men have been executed. Virginia is one of the most active death-penalty states, having executed 94 people since 1976.
During this year’s campaign the Republican contender, Jerry Kilgore, made a sound argument that anti-death penalty advocate Kaine couldn’t be trusted. That he would always find some reason to void a death penalty verdict. Warner and Kaine came out saying this would never happen. They used Warner as an example. Well, Warner did not want to be the one who allowed death sentence number 1000, some artificial number the media pulled out of the air tracing back to mythically magical year of 1976 – oh yeah, the Year of Jimmy!
The victim and his family were not considered in this decision. There was no proof of remorse or innocence. But Warner wants votes so he played God with our legal system.
Hat Tip Jayson at Polipundit.
http://www.prodeathpenalty.com/Pending/05/jul05.htm
Pro-death:
1. His guilt is certain.
2. He didn’t just stab the victim once, but six times.
3. His defense was, “I didn’t do it”. If he had chosen to plead guilty in the face of the evidence…I would be more sympathetic.
Anti-Death Penalty
1. The only evidence that can prove exculpatory was destroyed by the state(DNA).
2. He was not in his right mind, as he had just relapsed, and was likely under the influence of drugs.
3. The witness was 80% sure. That means there is a 20% chance they are wrong. Shadow of a doubt?
4. The other witness, to his confession, is a jail house informant.
Those who oppose his death sentence out of a constant moral opposition are irrelevant. Those who wish to argue the individual facts to point to his innocence, have failed to accept the fact that the jury was presented with ALL the facts, not just the ones they parsed and chose. He bet his life that he would be found innocent, not because he was, but because he believed there was insufficent eyewitness accounts that would render a shadow of a doubt. Had he chosen the defense that he did commit the murder but was not in his right mind at the time, I would have considered it murder 2.
Warner stayed his execution, but did not vacate the sentence. He is, in essense, agreeing with me (but NOT Lovitt) that he is guilty. Granting a pardon to a man who would not even own up to his crimes is inexcusable. I am sympathetic to Warner as he is probably of the belief that the defendant was not of sound mind, but now, given that the defendant is of sound mind and his defense remains, I didn’t do it…
He deserves to die. He won’t.
Remember Wille Horton?
We’ll be sure to see Mary Dicks, if not in the primary, then in the general election…
She is the mother of the Clayton Dicks, the man who was murdered.
“Mary Dicks, mother of the victim, took heart in the sentence, recalling her son as a quiet, reliable man who did not smoke or drink and who had wedding plans. A single father who lived in Northeast Washington, he had been raising two boys whom a one-time girlfriend had left in his care years earlier. Lovitt “needs the electric chair,” she said. “He gave Clayton the electric chair, and Clayton won’t be back. Let him know what death is.”
-excerpt from above linked site.
Warner is a weak candidate at best, fishing for the number two spot with his Red State and 13 EVs(and dreams of a Southern Strategy). 64% of Americans favor the death penalty as of Oct 05/Gallup. Never was a believer on Warner, hopeful after his Iraq statement, but now, unelectable. Would he seek to end the Death Penalty nationally? He went against his own state’s will in the matter…
Virginia Blog Carnival XV
Good morning and welcome to the 15th edition of the Virginia Blog Carnival, hosted this week here at Below The Beltway. As its name suggests, this carnival is devoted ot submissions, on virtually any subject, from blogger’s living in the Commonwealth…